Last Run. Short Season. Wednesday.

 Nowhere to be this Wednesday, so it was a slow start for us both.

Surprisingly, not only didn't the promised thunderstorms show up in the night, it didn't even rain. Not a drop. Putting the gazebo away in the fading light wasn't necessary, nor was weighting down the groundsheet we use in the gazebo to prevent it from blowing away. The temperature was even bobbling around 19C. Where had the weather gone?

I consistently praise the campground's "Comfort Station", that is the shower, toilet and laundry block, and today was no exception. Certainly the campground is very quiet this week, so the shower cubical was dry and clean thanks to little usage, but the copious hot water was an absolute delight this morning and really set up the day for me. I could use the shower in the trailer, but why have to eke out the onboard water supplies when I can go mad in the Comfort Station?

On the way to have my shower, I said hello to a couple who are camping with their three under school age children. The kids looked clean and pink, dad looked OK, but mum looked a little ragged around the edges. She said they were good kids, but not necessarily when taking a communal shower. I can't cope with one kid, let alone three. Still, camping is great for the little ones, so well done mum and dad for putting in the effort.

For breakfast we had crumpets. If you're not British you might not know what crumpets are, so have a look at the Wikipedia definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumpet. There are scads of people who will offer the "best" recipe for crumpets, but you can't beat a shop bought, mass produced crumpet, at least when you've been brought up on them. The problem with these crumpets, though was that they were frozen, and we have the world's worst electric toaster on board the Airstream. For reference, it's a Black and Decker model, and looks quite nice, but it can't toast anything properly to save its life. Even with a regular, unfrozen slice of bread, you have to put it on maximum power, and run the cycle twice, just to get the bread even slightly brown. It's hopeless. I wonder if it wasn't designed by someone who didn't really know what toast is? More likely, though, even when it wasn't cheap, it's made from cheap, inferior components. It's made in China, for sure, but the manufacturers will only build to the specification they're given, and B&D is a Canadian company, shame on them. We have promised ourselves a new toaster for next season. The crumpets, with three cycles on maximum power, turned out to be passable. For the non-Brits, if you ever try them, don't be tempted to add jam, or even Marmite, to the piping hot crumpet. You only need plain butter or spread for the authentic taste.

Just before lunch, and given that the weather was looking far from the rain that had been forecast, DW suggested a drive out to Ridgetown, just to have a walk. We're camped in a place with lots of walks, but Ridgetown promised to be free of bitey bugs, so off we went. The town itself is typical south western Ontario, full of wooden houses in tree-lined, grid-patterned street. We nipped into the residential areas north of Main Street and meandered around to a little park we'd visited before. Then we followed the small stream that flowed though the park, up the hill and onto the south side of town, enjoying seen the start of the autumn colours in the trees, and listening to the bird calls. Ridgetown lacks any modern development, at least in that area around the centre, so the streets are broad and straight and most of the houses date back to the mid nineteenth century. We walked a big square, north and south of Main Street and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Back at the campground, we set up the still slightly wet gazebo again, pulled out the slightly damp chairs, and positioned ourselves inside for an afternoon, enjoying the bug-free environment. I fell asleep in my chair, and for far longer than perhaps I should have because I woke with a very stiff neck and the start of a niggling headache. Getting old sucks.

After supper we put some music on inside the trailer and spent the evening chatting and putting the world to rights. Again, no TV, which is a feature of more recent camping trips we've made. I'm certainly not desperate to be watching TV, and our stay away from home is our chance to do things a bit differently.

Tomorrow, Thursday, is packing up day, and we have decided to get moving a little earlier than usual, thanks to a commitment at home. I hope the weather holds, because apart from Monday night, the weather's been glorious for late September.